Heart of a Gentleman

Track Six: Om (Bebot Meditation)

To my surprise, a lot of people are telling me how much they like this song. I always intended to have an instrumental song on this album just like my heroes Stevie and Donny have done but this song came together in an interesting way.

The music for this song came from my love of technology. I’ve been very excited about and interested in the many ways the iPhone and iPad are being used to create and perform music. After hearing about a new iPhone app, Bebot by Normalware, I couldn’t wait to find ways to incorporate this instrument into my arsenal. Check out this video here to see how it works (just watch the first :60 seconds):

When I got home to my studio I created an instrumental bed just to play around with the Bebot. What I was doing sounded so good that I kept it. After a few listens I realized how powerful this could be as a relaxing meditiation. In my head I heard the waves of the ocean and I heard a choir singing “Om”. Pulling from my days in the choir at Morgan State, I played the roll of a male choir vibrating “A-U-M” the universal sound of the Divine. You can hear the sound of many ancient cultures, African, Indian, Native American…it’s all there in that one sound. It’s haunting and relaxing, peaceful and engaging, loving and compassionate.

My first introduction to the power behind this ancient meditation came through reading and studying Joseph Campbell. In the Power of Myth, Campbell says:

“AUM is a word that represents to our ears that sound of the energy of the universe of which all things are manifestations. You start in the back of the mouth “ahh,” and then “oo,” you fill the mouth, and “mm” closes the mouth. When you pronounce this properly, all vowel sounds are included in the pronunciation. AUM. Consonants are here regarded simply as interruptions of the essential vowel sound. All words are thus fragments of AUM, just as all images are fragments of the Form of forms. AUM is a symbolic sound that puts you in touch with that resounding being that is the universe. If you heard some of the recordings of the Tibetan monks chanting AUM, you would know what the word means, all right. That’s the AUM of being in the world. To be in touch with that and to get the sense of that is the peak experience of all.”

The ancient Vedic “AUM” or “Om” became the sacred “AMIN” in Islam and “AMEN” to the Judeo-Christian tradition.